


Nebula

by aphrodisiatic_cat



Category: Doctor Who
Genre: F/M, Fluff, Hook Up, No Sex, romantic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-02-17
Updated: 2017-02-17
Packaged: 2018-09-25 02:35:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,211
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9798758
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/aphrodisiatic_cat/pseuds/aphrodisiatic_cat
Summary: Doctor and Rose have 6 hours to fill, Rose decides to take their relationship to the next level





	

**Author's Note:**

> Sorry there's no ending yet, there might be one day. Enjoy the surprise parting line.....

Rose lay on her back in the TARDIS, throwing an unidentifiable squishy thing from one hand to the other. "So, how long till we can go, Doctor?"  
"Erm...six hours?" he called from the depths below her. "The synthetic cardometre has gone on the blink, it'll take a while to power up again. For now," his head popped up from the floor. "We have time to kill. I parked us above the Titanius Cluster, spectacular view!”  
He bounded to the door and sat in the threshold, looking out. "You coming?"  
Rose got clumsily to her feet and joined him, sitting in the doorway with her feet dangling over the edge. They were drifting over a nebula, gauzy layers of gas and dust letting off a jewel-bright shine. There was every colour imaginable, and a few Rose could never have imagined. The sheer multitude of stars never failed to do her head in.  
"It's beau'iful," she breathed.  
"A new galaxy is being formed down there," he told her. "All that gas and matter will start to attract each other, larger and larger clumps forming until you get stars and planets, whole solar systems formed from this, this insubstantial collection of molecules. This,” he gesticulated, “is the birth of a galaxy, its beginning."  
They were sitting closely, shoulder to shoulder. “See, I can't even picture that. All I see is pretty gas clouds."   
They sat in silence for an immeasurable amount of time. "Doctor?"  
"Yeah?"  
Rose wrestled with her question for a moment. "Seeing as we have time to kill, could you tell me about your...past...relationships?"  
The Doctor was frozen beside her. His face was shocked, surprised that she had asked, had gone down that rabbit hole that she had never dared to before. "I...Rose, there's a reason that I've never told you anything before. A reason that I never mentioned Sarah Jane, or the others..."   
"The others?" she interjected.   
He was silent a moment. "Yes, the others," he confessed.  
Rose struggled with this for a moment, and then decided to stay silent. She needed to be mature about this, or he would never confide in her. And he couldn't have travelled time and space for 900 years and still be a virgin.  
The Doctor continued. "The reason I've never mentioned them is because I've had to leave them all. I've told you before, I don't age. I outlive all of them, and I take myself away before I can witness that. Because I've done that before, I've lived out a life with someone I love and watched them wither and die and I learned the hard way that it's less painful to leave before that happens. But it's still painful, and even mentioning it is...hard for me."  
Rose took his hand, touched by the intimacy and honesty of his confession. "I can't...I can't even imagine."  
"No," he said harshly. "You can't." The raw pain in his voice made Rose hug him properly, both arms around his waist, trying to give comfort to this lonely alien.  
"And that will happen to me?" Her chin rested on his shoulder, and she saw his eyes close and a tear leak out.   
"Rose..."  
"Doctor, it will happen to me. Unless I'm infected by a vampire or something and become immortal, I'm going to age and die. Which means you'll leave me before then. So where's the cut off, huh? At 50? 40? 30 even? When do you decide that I'm too old and leave me behind so that you don't have to watch me die?" Her voice broke on the last word, and she buried her head in his shoulder to hide the tears.  
They sat like that for another small infinity.   
"I can never look back," the Doctor whispered. "Because if I look back, I am lost in a sea of pain that has no ending. So I shove it behind, I keep moving, and I don't ever look back."  
"Okay," Rose murmured. "I'm sorry I brought it up."  
"It's okay," he murmured back. One of his arms wrapped around her, and they sat entwined for another while.   
Something beeped in the TARDIS behind them, and Rose asked, "how long to go?"  
"Five hours," he replied.  
"Well, that should be long enough," she said briskly. She disentangled herself from the Doctor's long limbs and stood up, proffering a hand. He stood too and faced her, frowning.  
"Long enough for what?"  
"Look, Doctor, we are gonna get our hearts broken one day, it's unavoidable. So instead of getting my heart broken over long hugs over nebulas, if I'm going to break it I want to do it properly."  
"What--"  
Rose cut him off with a kiss. She had kissed the Doctor before, but it had always been to save the planet or controlled by Cassandra. But this was different; this was done entirely of her own free will, with a complete understanding of what would happen to this relationship. And she didn't care. It was tender and open and honest, she poured all of her pent up attraction and frustration into that kiss.   
The Doctor broke away. "Rose..." He cupped one cheek in his hand. "Rose I can't. You say you're willing to go through the heartbreak, but...I just can't. I've done it too many times, and...you're different. You're more than the others, and losing you...it would break me."  
His face was desperate, anguished at the loss he would have to face. Rose was completely touched by his confession.  
"Okay, well, if that's what you want, then…ok.” She felt ready to cry or scream but recognised that this needed to be two-way, and she had never truly faced heartbreak the Doctor had done so uncountable times. She couldn’t understand the pain he went through. ”We'll just...keep on going as we have been, then.”  
The Doctor looked so torn for a moment, trying so hard to stick to his decision. And then he gave in.  
He pulled her face to his and kissed her again. But this time it was like a dying man being brought water. Rose matched his passion, every gasp and clutching hand. He pushed her up against one of the TARDIS’s twisting pillars, pressing her even closer to him. The feel of her body against his, after wanting it for so long…it was heady and intoxicating.  
Rose’s hands were roaming, and rather quickly found their way to the front of his pants. He broke the kiss and looked her with such lust and passion that it turned her on almost more than the kiss had. She stroked the mound there, watching for what caused pleasure. All the rules were different; she was dealing with an alien, not some human boyfriend. She’d have to be especially observant.  
He swooped in and kissed her again, his hands now exploring too. He cupped her breasts, rubbing his thumbs over the nipples and smiled satisfactorily when she arched her back in response. He kissed her neck, still stroking her boobs. Her hands were roaming over his back and shoulders, taking in his wiry frame. He found a particularly sensitive spot on her neck, and sucked at it lightly. She moaned and grabbed his ding a ling.


End file.
